*We almost always consider the difficulty of the communication barrier between the teacher/deaf parents, but we sometimes do not consider teh communication issues between the child and parent.
One Parent's Situation
*This is the case of a deaf parent with her six-month-old son, Toby. Being speech imparied has made her doubt her ability to teach her son to speak. She states taht he doesn't seem to understand her whien she is telling him to stop, such as when splashing in the bathtub.
The Response
*The response to this would be that her son is still developing language comprehension and that this is the reason he probably does not stop. As with any child whose parent doesn't speak the "typical" language, that child will hear words expressed differently, by you and with others. This does not affect the child's comprehension, who will more than likely understand the mother or father's words first but later comprehend other words as well.
How Parents Can Feel Efficient
*Most Deaf parents with hearing children have very positive views about the parenting efficiency in their family, yet they sometimes feel left out of their child's education progression. All school districts are responsible for providing educational programs for deaf parents. This information is porvided for the teachers and other staff members to increase the awareness of cultural and linguistic issues, which may be brought forth in a hearing child/deaf parent. Many times though, administrators will bypass the Deaf parent and go directly to hearing grandparents or the heaing child, and in this case the only thing the administrators are doing is devistating the parent.